Day: October 6, 2019

Sunday Photo Fiction — The Airport

Fandango7 Comments

9920E886-C8B2-47FD-9056-720A7154C504There was a lot of pushing and shoving. Tempers were flaring. People were angry and frustrated. Outbound flights were indefinitely delayed. Inbound flights were diverted to nearby airports. And there was no official word from anyone.

“What a freakin’ zoo this is,” Mark said to the guy, a stranger, standing next to him. “I have to be in Cincinnati for a meeting. No way I’ll be able to make it now.”

“My wife just went into labor and she’s heading to the hospital,” the guy said. “I’m going to miss the birth of our first child.”

“Excuse me, excuse me,” a large man said as he pushed and shoved his way to the ticket counter. “Can you tell me what the hell is going on?” he shouted.

“I’m sorry, sir,” the woman said. “I don’t have anything to share with you.”

The man leaned in and said, “Don’t bullshit a bullshitter, sweetheart. I know you know something.”

She leaned forward and in a low voice said, “Air Force One is on the tarmac for an unscheduled visit. As long as it’s here, the airport is on a ground hold.”

“There’s nothing that man can’t screw up.” the man said.

(200 words)

Written for today’s Sunday Photo Fiction prompt from Donna McNicol. Photo credit: Barb Crews.

Who Won The Week? 10/6/19

Fandango18 Comments

10CC3057-4EEA-4C80-B8C1-700C0FC6C906It’s time for another Who Won the Week prompt. The idea behind Who Won the Week is for you to select who you think “won” this past week. Your selection can be anyone or anything — politicians, celebrities, athletes, authors, bloggers, your friends or family members, books, movies, TV shows, businesses, organizations, whatever.

I will be posting this prompt on Sunday mornings (my time). If you want to participate, write your own post designating who you think won the week and why you think they deserve your nod. Then link back to this post and tag you post with FWWTW.

My pick for this week is college athletes in California.

In the past 20 years, college sports has ballooned into a multibillion dollar industry. For example, cable networks pay each Big Ten conference school about $50 million a year just for broadcast rights, and universities also cut multimillion dollar sponsorship deals with Nike, Adidas, and other athletic brands.

So while the colleges and universities for which these student-athletes play are earning billions and the coaches are earning millions, the student-athletes who play the game are often penniless, frustrated that they can’t monetize their athletic prowess or make money through endorsements or other ways.

California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed a bill that would let college athletes in California make money from endorsement deals for the first time. The law, which doesn’t go into effect until 2023, is meant to pressure the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to change its rules before then. The NCAA holds that college athletes should spend their time earning a degree for playing sports, not making money.

It’s important to understand that this law doesn’t permit colleges to pay their athletes to play sports. It merely allows student-athletes to promote products and companies, trading on their sports renown for the first time.BCF7D267-F26D-4617-97B8-A12F181F1826What about you? Do you think student-athletes should be able to earn money while playing college sports?

And now it’s your turn, folks. Who (or what) do you think won the week?

Song Lyric Sunday

Fandango17 Comments

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme, Jim Adams has given us Bus/Truck/Lorry. And the song I chose for this theme is “America” by Simon & Garfunkel, where the singer and his girlfriend boarded a Greyhound (bus) in search for America.

“America,” written by Paul Simon, was released on the duo’s fourth studio album, Bookends, in 1968. It was later released as a single in 1972 to promote the release of Simon and Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits.

The song is about young lovers hitchhiking their way across the United States, in search of “America,” in both a literal and figurative sense. It was inspired by a five-day road trip Simon took in September 1964 with his then girlfriend Kathy Chitty. They were coming back to America from England, and Paul was deeply confused and unsatisfied, but he didn’t understand why he felt that way. His lyrics include the line, “I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why.” He just knew that something was missing.

Interestingly, there are no rhymes in this song. The entire song is prose. There’s not one line that rhymes, which is unusual for a pop song.

Here are the lyrics to the song:

Let us be lovers,
We’ll marry our fortunes together.
I’ve got some real estate
Here in my bag.

So we bought a pack of cigarettes,
And Mrs. Wagner’s pies,
And walked off
To look for America.
“Kathy”, I said,
As we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh,
Michigan seems like a dream to me now.

It took me four days
To hitch-hike from Saginaw.
“I’ve come to look for America.”

Laughing on the bus,
Playing games with the faces,
She said the man in the gabardine suit
Was a spy.

I said, “Be careful,
His bow tie is really a camera.”
“Toss me a cigarette,
I think there’s one in my raincoat.”
We smoked the last one
An hour ago.

So I looked at the scenery,
She read her magazine;
And the moon rose over an open field.
“Kathy, I’m lost”, I said,
Though I knew she was sleeping.
“I’m empty and aching and
I don’t know why.”

Counting the cars
On the New Jersey Turnpike
They’ve all come
To look for America,
All come to look for America,
All come to look for America.

FOWC with Fandango — Court

Fandango18 Comments

FOWCWelcome to October 6, 2019 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “court.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

The issue with pingbacks not showing up seems to have been resolved, but you might check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.